1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a surgical operation by wire (SOBW) type surgical operation apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to an SOBW type surgical operation apparatus including an end effector configured so as to remove or minimize configurations of a mechanical cable.
2. Description of the Related Art
A surgical operation apparatus such as a surgical operation robot inserts a small surgical operation tool into a human body in which a surgical operation area is positioned to perform minimally invasive surgery. The surgical operation apparatus includes extension parts connected to a body part thereof, such as a plurality of robot arms, and the like. The extension part may include a passive part and an active part, wherein the passive part is a part that may be manually effected by a preparation step before a surgical operation and the active part is a part effected according to an action of a worker such as a doctor, or the like, at the time of performing the surgical operation.
The active part is mounted with a surgical operation tool inserted into the abdominal cavity, a joint, or the like, in the human body to perform a surgical operation work such as photographing, resection, or the like. The surgical operation tool is called an end effector in the surgical operation robot and generally may perform motion in five directions such as vertical motion, horizontal motion, forward and reverse motion, rotational motion, and forceps motion. In addition, a mechanical cable extension part such as a robot arm, or the like, may be provided with one or more joint part in order to effectively access the affected part.
In the surgical operation apparatus according to the related art, the end effector and/or the joint part are driven by a cable extended from the body part to the active part, and the body part or the passive part of the surgical operation apparatus such as the surgical operation robot, or the like, is provided with a driver for driving the cable. Korean Patent Application Publication No. 10-2012-0120837 entitled “Apparatus for Measuring Force of Robot Arm Operating Cable Using Optical Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor and Remote Robot Arm Operating Apparatus Using the Same” has disclosed a configuration using an optical fiber Bragg grating sensor in order to measure force of a cable. However, in the case of driving the end effectors and/or the joint parts of the surgical operation apparatus using the cables, when the number of joint parts is increased or a length of the extension part such as the robot arm, or the like, is increased, the number of cables or lengths of the cables are also increased in proportion to the number of joint parts or the length of the extension part, such that a mechanical connection structure with the surgical operation apparatus provided with the driver for driving the cable may be complicated. This causes a similar problem also in the case in which a degree of freedom of motion of the end effector is increased. In addition, this increases a size of the surgical operation apparatus provided with the driver.
That is, motion of the cable for driving a distal end joint in the surgical operation apparatus including a plurality of joints may have an influence on motion of other joints, and backlash may be increased as a distance between the driver and the joint part and/or the end effector of the surgical operation apparatus becomes distant. Large tension is applied to the cable in order to decrease the backlash. As a result, a problem that the cable is cut or deformed during a surgical operation may occur.